How to Calculate Baker's Percentage | Converting to Grams and Working Back from Dough Weight, Number of Pieces or One Egg
Bread recipe books and professional recipes sometimes list ingredients as “bread flour 100%, water 68%, salt 2%”. This is baker's percentage. It looks confusing at first, but once you get used to it you can scale a recipe freely and see at a glance how it differs from other recipes, which makes it a very handy way of writing a formula. This guide explains how baker's percentage works, how to convert it to grams, how to work back to the flour weight from the dough weight you want, from “8 pieces × 50 g”, or from one egg, typical percentages for each ingredient, and how to convert when you use a different yeast from the recipe, with worked examples.
What is baker's percentage? A way of writing that sets flour to 100%
Baker's percentage (baker's %) sets the total flour used in a bread to 100% and expresses every other ingredient as a percentage of the flour. When you use two or more flours, such as bread flour and whole wheat flour, you add all the flour together to make 100%. Water, salt and yeast are all written as “what percentage of the flour”.
This works differently from an ordinary percentage (where the whole is 100%), so take care. Because flour is 100% in baker's percentage, all the ingredients together add up to more than 100%: around 180–190% for sandwich bread and around 200% for dinner rolls.
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Share of the total (ordinary %) |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 100% | About 53.6% |
| Sugar | 6% | About 3.2% |
| Salt | 2% | About 1.1% |
| Skim milk powder | 3% | About 1.6% |
| Instant dry yeast | 1.5% | About 0.8% |
| Butter | 6% | About 3.2% |
| Water | 68% | About 36.5% |
| Total | 186.5% | 100% |
What makes baker's percentage handy is that once the flour weight is fixed, every other ingredient comes out by multiplication alone. And when salt is 2% and water 68% of the flour, you can compare saltiness and dough firmness directly even between recipes with different amounts of flour. That is why professional bakeries and baking schools use this way of writing.
How to convert baker's percentage to grams
Here are the ingredient weights for the sandwich bread formula above made with 250 g and 300 g of flour. Ingredients under 10 g are rounded to 0.1 g and the rest to 1 g. For small amounts like yeast and salt, a scale that reads in 0.1 g steps is reassuring.
| Ingredient | Baker's % | With 250 g flour | With 300 g flour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 100% | 250 g | 300 g |
| Sugar | 6% | 15 g | 18 g |
| Salt | 2% | 5 g | 6 g |
| Skim milk powder | 3% | 7.5 g | 9 g |
| Instant dry yeast | 1.5% | 3.8 g | 4.5 g |
| Butter | 6% | 15 g | 18 g |
| Water | 68% | 170 g | 204 g |
| Total dough | 186.5% | About 466 g | About 560 g |
To go the other way and turn a recipe written in grams into baker's percentage, divide each ingredient's grams by the flour's grams and multiply by 100. For a recipe with 280 g of bread flour and 190 g of water, the water is 190 ÷ 280 × 100 ≈ 67.9%. Converting your own recipes to baker's percentage pays off whenever you want to change the flour amount or compare them with other recipes.
Working back to the flour weight from the dough weight you want
Often the final dough weight is decided first, as in “I want to put 450 g of dough in a 1-loaf pan”. In that case, use the total of the formula's percentages to work back to the flour weight.
Say you want 450 g of dough from the sandwich bread formula totalling 186.5%. With no loss, the flour is 450 ÷ 186.5 × 100 ≈ 241 g. But dough sticks to the bowl and bench while kneading, so in practice you won't get exactly 450 g. Allowing 3% loss gives 450 × 1.03 ÷ 186.5 × 100 ≈ 249 g, for about 464 g of dough. Making a little extra means you won't run short when you divide it.
- A typical loss is 2–5%: more if you knead by hand by rubbing the dough on the bench, less with a bread machine
- Once the flour weight is set, work out the other ingredients as “flour weight × %”
- How to find the dough weight for a pan itself is explained in calculating dough weight for a loaf pan
Working back to the flour weight from “pieces × grams”
For breads made by dividing the dough, like dinner rolls and round rolls, it is easier to think in terms of the weight and number of pieces, such as “8 pieces of 50 g”. The total dough is weight per piece × number of pieces, and from there it is the same as working back from dough weight.
Here is the calculation for 8 pieces of 50 g using a dinner roll formula totalling 200.6% (bread flour 100%, sugar 12%, salt 1.6%, instant dry yeast 2%, whole egg 15%, milk 20%, water 35%, butter 15%).
| Ingredient | Baker's % | 50 g × 8 (no loss) | 50 g × 8 (3% loss) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 100% | 199 g | 205 g |
| Sugar | 12% | 24 g | 25 g |
| Salt | 1.6% | 3.2 g | 3.3 g |
| Instant dry yeast | 2% | 4 g | 4.1 g |
| Whole egg | 15% | 30 g | 31 g |
| Milk | 20% | 40 g | 41 g |
| Water | 35% | 70 g | 72 g |
| Butter | 15% | 30 g | 31 g |
| Total dough | 200.6% | 400 g | About 412 g |
If you calculate with no loss, the last piece often comes out slightly short. For divided breads, allowing around 3% loss is a safe choice. For 12 pieces of 40 g, prepare 40 × 12 × 1.03 ÷ 200.6 × 100 ≈ 246 g of flour.
Working back from the amount of one ingredient, such as one egg
When you don't want to leave half an egg or a little milk over, setting the whole formula from that ingredient's amount avoids waste. Calculate flour weight = that ingredient's amount ÷ that ingredient's % × 100.
The dinner roll formula above has 15% whole egg. To use up one egg (medium, about 50 g without the shell), the flour is 50 ÷ 15 × 100 ≈ 333 g. That gives 40 g sugar, 5.3 g salt, 6.7 g yeast, 67 g milk, 117 g water and 50 g butter, for about 669 g of dough. With a large egg (about 55 g without the shell), the flour is about 367 g.
- The same idea works when you want to use up half a 200 g block of butter, or use 100 g of milk
- If the resulting flour weight is too much or too little for your pan or oven, adjust the egg, for example by keeping some of the beaten egg back for egg wash
- If using a whole egg adds too much liquid, reduce the water to keep the effective hydration the same (see calculating effective hydration)
Typical baker's percentages for each ingredient
Writing in baker's percentage makes the “usual range” for each ingredient clear. Use these as a guide when you create your own recipe or check whether a recipe's numbers look right.
| Ingredient | Usual range | What happens with more or less |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | 1.5–2.2% | Too little makes the flavour flat and the dough slack; too much slows fermentation |
| Sugar | Lean breads 0–8%, sweet breads 10–25% | At 10% or more, an osmotolerant yeast suits better |
| Instant dry yeast | About 0.3–2% | Less for lean doughs and long fermentation, more for sweet doughs |
| Butter | Sandwich bread 3–10%, brioche 30–60% | More makes it softer and takes longer to knead |
| Skim milk powder | 2–5% | Improves flavour and browning |
| Water (liquid including milk and egg) | About 55% for bagels to 80%+ for high hydration | More makes it softer and harder to handle |
In the Bread Baking Calculator's formula table, a warning appears when salt is below 1.4% or above 2.4% of the flour, when sugar is 10% or more, and when effective hydration is below 50% or above 85%. It also tells you when the flour doesn't add up to 100%, and “Scale flour to 100%” corrects the other ingredients' percentages while keeping their ratios.
Converting when you use a different yeast from the recipe
Many baker's percentage recipes are written with fresh yeast. If all you have is instant dry yeast, convert to the amount that gives the same leavening power. The rule of thumb is “fresh yeast 3 : active dry yeast 1.5 : instant dry yeast 1”.
| Fresh yeast | Active dry yeast (needs proofing) | Instant dry yeast |
|---|---|---|
| 3 g | 1.5 g | 1 g |
| 6 g | 3 g | 2 g |
| 9 g | 4.5 g | 3 g |
| 15 g | 7.5 g | 5 g |
In baker's percentage, 3% fresh yeast is 1% instant dry yeast. Some makers put instant yeast at 0.4 times fresh yeast, so check the label on your product too. One teaspoon of instant dry yeast is about 3 g. For converting between measuring spoons and grams, how many ml is 1 gou? Converting measuring cups and tablespoons may also help.
Converting a formula to grams with the Bread Baking Calculator
In the Bread Baking Calculator's “Baker's % Formula” tab, choose from sample formulas for sandwich bread, dinner rolls, baguette, pain de campagne, bagels and pizza dough, or enter your own ingredients and percentages. In “What to calculate from?”, choose flour weight, final dough weight, pieces × grams each, or the weight of one ingredient, and enter a number to see the grams of every ingredient and the total dough instantly. You can also enter a loss percentage (dough left on the bowl and bench).
“Copy formula” lets you paste the result into a notes app. Once the water amount is set, use the same tool's “Dough Water Temperature” tab to find what temperature that water should be (see the desired dough temperature formula).
FAQ
- What is baker's percentage?
- It is a way of writing a formula that sets the total flour in a bread to 100% and expresses the other ingredients as a percentage of the flour. With bread flour 100%, water 68% and salt 2%, 250 g of flour means 170 g of water and 5 g of salt. Unlike an ordinary percentage, all the ingredients together add up to more than 100%.
- How do I convert baker's percentage to grams?
- Each ingredient's weight = flour weight × that ingredient's % ÷ 100. With 300 g of flour, 6% sugar is 18 g and 1.5% yeast is 4.5 g. When you use two kinds of flour, calculate with the total flour weight.
- How do I find the flour weight from the dough weight I want?
- Flour weight = desired dough weight ÷ total of the formula's % × 100. For 450 g of dough with a sandwich bread formula totalling 186.5%, that is about 241 g, or about 249 g if you allow 3% for dough left in the bowl.
- How much flour do I need for 8 rolls of 50 g each?
- Divide the 400 g total dough by the total of the formula's percentages and multiply by 100. With a dinner roll formula totalling 200.6%, that is about 199 g with no loss, or about 205 g allowing 3% loss.
- How do I size a recipe to use exactly one egg?
- Calculate flour weight = egg weight ÷ egg % × 100. With a formula of 15% whole egg and one medium egg (about 50 g without the shell), the flour is about 333 g. Work out the other ingredients by multiplying that flour weight by their percentages.
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